But a slightly more serious boat, say an older Jeannau or something else that isn't immediately going to sink if you take it out on blue water is going to cost you a fair amount of money and will be - unless you are already a multi-millionaire - a way of life rather than something you only use on the weekends because of the money you'll end up pumping into it.

If you go on youtube and find the various channels where people talk about their life on their boats and what it's like you'll see that they hardly ever really talk about where they are going or what they are doing, the main subjects are always money, repairs and weather.

A boat, unlike a house, is very strongly influenced by its environment and anything that you can no longer easily put on a trailer behind a car to get it out of the water when you're not using it will require near continuous work. You won't ever be able to 'and now it is done' and then to use it for the next five years without major work on it.

If you can have it taken out of the water so you can inspect the underwatership from the outside, if there are zinc blocks look at how much they've worn and whether they've been replaced regularly, if they are completely gone you shouldn't buy the boat regardless of how well it looks.